Background:
China is one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. Chinese students’ awareness and understanding about global warming have a significant impact on the future of mankind.

Material and methods:
This study, as an initial research of this kind in Mainland China, uses clinical interviews to survey 37 grade eight students on their understanding about global warming, as well as their personal actions to combat it.

Results:
Findings show that students know CO2 and acknowledge the existence of global warming, but 94.6% of them have not formed scientific conceptual understanding or the ability to make scientific decisions to combat it. The study also shows that mass media, rather than science education, serves as the main source for students to obtain information about global warming.

Conclusions:
These results implicate that the concept of global warming must be added in science education and the teaching quality of scientific concepts must be promoted in Mainland China.